To keep our bodies healthy, health experts would advocate frequent exercise combined with a well-balanced diet.
Getting at least seven hours of sleep every night is another crucial aspect in maintaining overall health. Unfortunately, many of us do not get enough sleep, which leads to a variety of health problems.
How Much Sleep is Enough?
We’ve mentioned above that you should try to catch at least seven hours of sleep every night. This number however is the average and is therefore not cast in stone for everyone.
You can determine just how much sleep you need depending on your age group.
Take a look here:
- Older people aged 65-70+ require at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night
- Ages 26-64 requires around 7 to 9 hours of sleep
- Ages 18-25 requires at least 7 to 9 hours of sleep
- Teenagers aged 14-17 years require 8-10 hours of sleep
- Ages I to 2 years(toddlers) require 11 to 14 hours of sleep each day
- Ages 4 to 11 months require 12 to 15 hours a day
- 0 months to 3 months requires 14 to 17 hours of sleep per day.
This data is per the National Sleep Foundation. Other factors that can influence the amount of sleep that your body needs include genetic factors, environmental factors as well as overall health.
The Effects of Sleep Deprivation
There are many ways your body could be affected due to a lack of sufficient sleep such as:
- Low levels of alertness: Lack of sleep causes your alertness levels to decline. Lacking just 1.5 hours of sleep is enough to cause a significant decline in alertness.
- Daytime drowsiness: Not having enough shut-eye can cause you to feel drowsy and sleepy during your most productive hours of the day.
- Moodiness: Lack of enough sleep can cause you to feel stressed and moody which may cause you to lash out at other people and get into conflicts. This can affect your relationships.
- Poor memory: When you don’t get enough sleep, you may struggle with remember things and have a hard time processing information.
- Road accidents: Driving after not getting enough sleep can cause an accident. This is because you are more likely to have a slow reaction time due to drowsiness.
- Lowered quality of life: Sleep deprivation will cause you to lose motivation in the things that are fun. This may lower the quality of life.
Lack of Sleep Can Be Dangerous
There is evidence that a lack of sleep causes more long-term health issues to our bodies. Examples include stroke, heart attacks, diabetes, or high blood pressure.
You could also put yourself at risk of obesity, depression, and low libido. Furthermore, your immunity may also be impaired.
There are also negative consequences that show on the outside as well as you may start to wrinkle prematurely.
How to Ensure You Get Enough Sleep
There are a few tricks that you can use to ensure that you get enough sleep every night.
Schedule Your Bedtime
It is easy to spend your evening binging on movies which causes you to sleep late. That said, make sure that you set a specific time that you will be going to bed.
Schedule Your Wake Up Time
Similarly, it is possible to sleep late and wake up too early. Schedule a time at which you will be waking up after getting adequate rest and sleep.
Put Your Gadgets on Silent Mode
Whether it’s your phone or tablet, ensure that you keep it on silent mode to avoid any distractions when you are asleep.
Final Word
Having too much to do every day may cause us to take sleep for granted, however as we have seen, sleep is an important part of healthy living. Always ensure that you set your lifestyle in such a way that you do not comprise your sleep.